Eastern Illinois romps over UIC

Eastern Illinois made itself right at home Saturday with a convincing 86-66 victory over Illinois-Chicago at the UIC Pavilion.

Reggie Smith, a Thornton product, led all scorers with 23 points, and Alex Austin of Mount Carmel added nine points, a steal and a blocked shot as the Panthers (2-1) shot 57.1 (28 of 49) from the field.

"The last time I played here I was a sophomore in high school," Austin said. "I have family (here) and my birthday is (Sunday), so this is a great way to cap off the weekend."

Smith was 7 of 13 from the field, including 3 of 5 from 3-point range.

"It's always special playing in your hometown," Smith said. "I had a lot of family members (in attendance), old coaches and everything. It was just a great day for me and my team."

It wasn't such a great day for UIC coach Howard Moore and his Flames (1-2).

"I just feel responsible for allowing my guys to come out not as equipped for that physical type of game," Moore said. "They came in and threw the first few blows and we really didn't respond well. We tried to tell (our players) this was going to be a physical, athletic game with a team that is pretty confident."

"If we don't play defense we're not going to win," Brown said. "Coach Moore can take blame for it, but he's not out there playing. He's just telling us what to do. Us 15 guys in the locker room know what we have to do — that's play defense or we're not going to win."

Eastern Illinois led 40-27 at halftime before the Flames opened the second half with an 8-2 run. But the Panthers held off every attempt UIC made to make the game close.

The Panthers also got 10 points from Josh Piper and nine points each from Keenen Anderson, Dylan Chatman and Luke Piotrowski.

"We look a lot better when the ball goes in. And it went in," Eastern coach Jay Spoonhour said.